Down Time
by Ultima-Matrixed
Summary: With the war behind her, Noin tries to look to the future but is still to much in the past. She finds eventual acceptance in an unlikely place. Rated T.


_Disclaimer: Gundam wing and the larger saga it's connected to all belong to SUNRISE studios. These characters aren't mine; they volunteered to do pro-bono work. _

_Author's note: This fic takes place a short while after the end of episode 49 and before Endless Waltz. So it's safe to say somewhere in that year in between the two._

I

The Chains That Bind Me

AC195

Earth hadn't changed much since the formation of the ESUN. Its fields of bloody battles now lie still. Metal still jutted up from husks of metal dolls still embedded in the earth. Their pilot's body (if there was one) long removed and left them as a reminder to the past. The cities and town's were on a path to rebuilding and the long ago scene of soldiers and their machines of war were of a short ago but not forgotten.

Perhaps it is far worse to survive war and not die of it. Ones life purged clean of flesh and there life blood trickles down to feed the beast of battle. They no longer worry about their lives or who they left behind. They dead seemingly ignorant of the living; to have such a care-free end. Not to continue living in the mess of it all.

Like her.

There were times when she stood on the battle fields and let the screams rush over in her mind. The memories of all those who had lost their lives ragged at her emotions. She felt responsible for putting many of them into these machines and sending them off to die. But she felt no remorse and no regret streaked across her mind. She was a solider following orders. Maybe for the wrong side at the time. But at least now she knew that she was with the right side now. She stood with others, the guardians of the gate of war. A shadow that was but small bright flame. A flame that had every right to eradicate any threat. But still she felt still useless and hopeless. The one person that could quell her sadness and bring her joy was gone. He chose to stay in the shadows and lurk as if he were some kind of beast. And she was forced to trudge on without him. He, who was the chains the bound her.

hr 

An alarm clock set on a table and chirped away. The room around it was dark like the rest of the apartment. A small beam of light broke from the blinded window and shone on its occupant, a slumbering woman. The woman herslf was a sight to behold. She appeared to still be in her late teens early twentys. Clad only in a sheet, her body sheened for the sweat of the night. He dark locks though disheveled, shielded two sharp deep blue eyes from the impending sunlight.

Annoyed, she reached over to the table while knocking over a whine bottle and turned the alarm off. She then sat up the sheet slowly falling from her well shaped breasts and then put her feet over the edged revealing a pair of dark panties.

"11:00? Shit …" she said holding her head feeling the come on of the hangover she still had. She picked up the other bottle that was still on the nightstand and kicked it back but it was empty. She let it fall from her hands and it just hit the carpet and rolled.

"Drinking your self silly isn't going to help you. Get a grip Noin." She said to herself getting up and picking up a shirt that hung on a nearby knob and pulling it over her chest. Decent enough for the rest of her apartment, Noin walked out of her bedroom with the bottles in her arms and tossed them in the rubbish bin in her kitchen.

She noticed her dinner still sat from last night. She took a bite of it and discovered her stomach was still closed and not accepting payments. So she dumped the remainder of the pasta down the garbage disposal and ran it. It was a shame really, she actually bothered to cook last night and it still was probably good.

She walked over to her uniform which despite the rest of her apartment still hung with a precision that only a solider whould have. She reached into the breast pocket and pulled out a brick of smokes and fished the lighter of her pants pocket. Yet another vice she had picked up in the past few months. But, she only smoked at home and away from her uniform so nobody knew. The only reason why the uniform had anything on it was because she had stopped at a convenience store on her way home from work.

She looked over and saw that her phone's ringer was still set to off. She looked over on the small square that was her message machine and it blinked with 3 messages. With a cigarette in her mouth she lit it and the pushed the button. As it clicked and whirred to life, she half sat on her kitchen counter and sucked at the sweet stick as if it was the best head she was ever giving in her life.

"Noin! Where the hell are you? It's 9 and your still not here. Did you forget that Une is having a presentation today and we both need to be there! If you sleeping in again I'm going to come in there and drive my foot up your ass!"

"Ooo, don't threaten me with excitement like that Sally. And if you ever did come to wake me up I'd pull your long hair right out of your scalp." Noin said sarcastically to the machine as it moved on to the next message.

"Noin-san, why are you never home? Well anyway I just called to check on you. You haven't called me in a few weeks and I was worried about you. Give me a call when you get this."

Noin wanted to kick herself for sleeping in because she had missed Relena's call. She made a mental note to call her sometime during the day.

"Yo, Noin! I got this number from Sally. She says that you're wondering around like you're lost. Noin, I don't think that Ze—" the machine shattered into a million peaces as it exploded from the sides with Noin's fist embedded in it. Of all the syllables she could have heard that was the one that would have made her kill Duo if he was present.

She was going to hang Sally by her long hair the next time she saw her. Apparently Sally couldn't keep her mouth shut and blabbed to everyone she could. She almost could see Wufei laughing at her for it. She put out the cig on the broken machine and went off to take her shower. She wasn't about to be hungover, angry and smelly too. She stripped her clothing as she made her way to the bathroom trying to recall non-lethal torture techniques.


End file.
